Christina, Hector, and Helen weren't so sure that they wanted to stay home when their parents were out fighting the enemies. Still, they could tell their father was much more severe than before. Until now, they only saw him spoiling them, and when they had to be scolded, their mothers did the job. They never saw Billy angry, and they kinda didn't want to see it now… so it was hard to try to be cheeky now.
"I will be counting on you," Billy said, and then head patted his kids.
Billy left, and then he felt that it was time to put in motion the part two of his first plan. The zombies were about to attack, and the flying spearmen moved away from the barrier. When Billy tried to understand why he felt other armies approaching. Ice trolls, liches, and even more of the frozen souls were coming as well.
"I really have to hurry up…" Billy thought.
Since he had enough mana to pull that off, Billy didn't waste any more time. He took several deep breaths to calm down and focus his senses. Once he reached the max level of his focus, Billy began to condense his mana with his entire body again. He did the same thing when he crossed the life spirit barrier.
The life and death spirits had some things to say about that, but they couldn't since their words would disrupt Billy's focus, so they could only watch him. Eventually, Billy's body began to emit a pale blue aura while he was sweating bullets. It felt like he was changing the composition of his body with magic, even if it was temporarily… it was pretty painful since his nerves, bones, and muscles were burning.
Even Billy's green eyes began to change color to the same light blue… it felt weird since his hair color didn't change. Regardless, those who had good senses felt that something inside the barrier had changed. Still, it wasn't something evil… eventually, Billy felt his body adapting to all that mana moving inside his body. He felt himself become as light as a feather. Not to mention, he also thought that he had obtained control over magic like never before.
Billy - Lv 996 - 339.000/ 6.750.000 EXP
HP: 7126/ 7126
MP: 19110/ 19110 + ????
SP: 3975/ 3975
Strength: 579 + 1565
Speed: 463 + 1565
Magic: 4308 + 3670 + ????
Endurance: 242 + 1565
Dexterity: 219 + 555
Status Points: 00
While looking at his parameters, Billy also could tell that his magic potential had greatly increased. Even the system couldn't quantify his latent strength. Still, all that power came with a cost. Since his body had become semi-ethereal, and filled with mana, pretty much everything he touched turned into dust. At the same time, all of the free mana around began to be pulled by his body, even from the people everywhere. Fortunately, with just a single thought, he stopped that and only drained the mana from the environment.
"What happened to you, Billy?" Natalie suddenly approached and asked. "Your body and presence feel much more different than before."
"... I had this idea when I heard that Uvish changed how mana worked in the world," Billy replied. "He made mana become something that is mostly used to strengthen dungeon cores and probably his own. That would explain how the rulers can control the mana of the world, and I just created my own version of that."
Billy checked his hands and opened and closed them. He realized another flaw of that technique… His feelings on his body had grown a lot weaker, and he barely felt the need to reply to Natalie's question…
"You aren't supposed to be like that, so you have to balance it," the life spirit said.
"As I suspected… The idea of the second plan was indeed the right one to have after this," Billy said and then used Emotional Control to amplify his feelings. Unfortunately, the effects were minimal. "I have to do this as soon as possible…"
Using his mana, Billy created another magic field, and he expanded it around the city. This time, the barrier was clear as the day. Still, it didn't damage any of the people that touched it. Only those that were recognized by Billy were pushed away. Those were the monsters and the flying spearmen outside. Once he did that, Billy's mana left his body completely, and he fell to the ground…
"This should last for a few days…" Billy said and then sighed.
"We need to test this, cross the barrier and let me use my authority on it," The death spirit said.
Putting his exhaustion aside, Billy was certain that the barrier was perfect against space magic, so he didn't want to test it. Still, using the death spirit powers would be the best way to test it, so he did exactly that. When they crossed the barrier, the spirit tried that. Still, the barrier repelled all of his authority… it was completely nullified. Only a power-on pair with the other spirits were supposed to pull that off.
"How did you do this?" The death spirit asked.
"I am tired, so that I will tell you the short version," Billy said. "As you 7saw, I forced my body to become ethereal by overloading it with mana. I imagined that such a thing was possible if I had a lot more spiritual energy than physical matter. When it comes to magic potential, spirits have the advantage because you guys are made of mana. Still, living beings can also use mana, but their bodies have a cap that they can't surpass by normal means. Still, Uvish was surpassed by becoming like you guys after getting a fraction of your power. After doing something similar, I used the mana in my possession to create a barrier that completely negates mana coming from inside, at least mana in not its purest form. I had to use all my knowledge and experience to create a barrier that negates all the spells and types of magic that I saw, but… it was worth it. Now I just have to improve it a bit without relying on the system, and then everything will be perfect."
